Concert Crunch Time

The end of the semester – Concert Crunch. Pro Musica has finished it’s subscription concerts, but has 3 more concerts to go this season. Or is it 4?

The University Chorale and Chamber Singers have their big spring concert, The Choral Hour, on Tuesday. The Chamber Singers have prepared for this with five performances in advance. Three of these took place at area retirement centers, one was last weekend at First United Methodist of Delmar as part of a fundraiser for Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless, and one was for the University alumni annual banquet.

Here’s the thing: The first of these was April 12, and the other four all took place within one week, last Sunday, Wednesday, yesterday and today. Dress rehearsal on our own stage tomorrow, and then the formal concert on Tuesday night. Crunch!

There’s nothing like performing several times in different spaces and for different audiences to get a group to really jell. Our repertory includes two pieces fro Elizabethan England, several 20th century love songs by American and English composers, a handful of African-American spirituals, one pop piece form Sweet Honey in the Rock, a piece from Costa Rica and another from Venezuela.

I like that the Chamber Singers have to switch gears from one group of songs to another, and from one century to another, from sacred to secular, and from classical to pop/folk. It’s part of their education to explore so many different things all at once. And it’s good for the audience to have a variety.

And given how often students put off things like term papers and exam studying until the last minute, they are used to Crunch Time!